INSPIRED, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 31Product Evangelism

Product evangelism is, as Guy Kawasaki put it years ago, “selling the dream.” It's helping people imagine the future and inspiring them to help create that future.

If you're a startup founder, a CEO, or a head of product, this is a very big part of your job, and you'll have a hard time assembling a strong team if you don't get good at it.

If you're a product manager—especially at a large company—and you're not good at evangelism, there's a very strong chance that your product efforts will get derailed before they see the light of day. And even if product does manage to ship, it will likely go the way of thousands of other large company efforts and wither on the vine.

We've talked about how important it is to have a team of missionaries, not mercenaries, and evangelism is a key responsibility to make this happen. The responsibility for this falls primarily on the product manager.

There are several techniques to help communicate the value of what you're proposing to your team, colleagues, stakeholders, executives, and investors. Here are my top‐10 pieces of advice for product managers to sell the dream:

1. Use a prototype. For many people, it's way too hard to see the forest through the trees. When all you have is a bunch of user stories, it can be difficult to see the big picture and how things hang together (or even if they hang together). A prototype lets them clearly see the forest and the trees.
2. Share the pain. Show the team the customer pain you ...